Brazil: Rio goes for Republican

A Republican, evangelical, bishop of the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God), you say? Hillary may need a bigger basket for the deplorables, but the PRB is not affiliated with the U.S. Republican party.

The other major contest was in Belo Horizonte, capital of the second-most-populous state. Alexandre Kalil, former president of a local soccer club, narrowly defeated João Leite, the team’s former goalkeeper. Mr. Kalil, of the little-known Humanist Solidarity Party, campaigned by saying he isn’t a politician; Mr. Leite is a member of the major conservative Brazilian Social Democracy Party.

Relative outsiders were expected to win key battles over rivals from major parties such as Ms. Rousseff’s Workers’ Party, or PT, which had held the presidency for more than 13 years.

New President Michel Temer’s center-right Brazilian Democratic Movement Party failed to capitalize on the PT’s woes, merely holding its ground in the first round of elections thanks to strong results in smaller cities. Voters soundly rejected the party’s candidates in key metropolitan areas including São Paulo and Rio.

“The public is tired of the conventional parties: the machine, the corruption,” said Leonardo Zuardi, a retired 59-year-old bank worker on his way out of a polling station in Rio’s upper-class Leblon neighborhood.